Improvement in wooden street pavements



pavement.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

oRA-RLEse.` WATERRURY, on NEw/ YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN WOODEN STREET PAVEMENTSV. s

Specifieationforming part of `Letters Patent No. 102,991, dated May 10, 1870.

To all whom it mayV concern:

Be it known that I, GHARLEs G. WATER- BURY, of the city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

My improvement relates to a wooden pavement of that class known as the Nicolson pavement;7 and it consists, first, in an improved method of setting the wooden blocks on the board foundation in the roadway between the glitters; and, second, in a new and improved mode of constructing the gutters on each side of the roadway.

I prepare the street and the board foundation for the paving-blocks in the same manner as is'practiced in laying the Nicolson pavement, under Letters Patent granted to Samuel Nicolson, dated August 8, 1854, and reissued December 1,1863, and August 20,1867; and I also make my paving-blocks for the main roadway of similar form and dimensions to those commonly used in laying said Nicolson pavement. But one serious defect that has been found to exist in the Nicolson pavement consists in the liability of the strips placed between the rows of paving-blocks to work up from the board foundation as the pavement is used, thus causing the pavement to leak and the water from the surface to get under it, which soon destroys or. greatlyinj ures it.

Attempts have heretofore been made to rem,- edy this most serious defect in the Nicolson One of the plans adopted to some extent as a remedy for this difficulty consists in dispensing with the strips between the paving-blocks altogether, and filling the spaces between them with gravel down to the board foundation. In laying a pavement on this plan, removable strips are placed between the rows of paving-blocks, for the purpose of setting them in straight rows and of determin-4 ing the space between them; but these strips are taken out before the gravel is filled in.

It ismanifest that when this mode of construction is pursued, the positions of the paving-blocks will be liable to be disturbed in putting in the gravel, so that it is difficult to put down a pavement on this plan, in which the rows of paving-blocks will be in uniformly straight rows across the street, or the spaces between them of uniform width.

By my improvement I completely obviate the aforesaid defect in the Nicolson pavement, and at the same time set the blocks in as uniformly straight rows, with the spaces between them of as regular and uniform width as the Nicolson pavement, and do it as easily.

My improvement consists in using between the pavingblocks, instead of strips of board nailed to the paving-blocks (as has heretofore been practiced in putting down the Nicolson pavement) thin cleats of the saine width between the rows of blocks as the strips heretofore used in the Nicolson pavement, but so thin in the other direction that they may easily be nailed to the board foundation by driving nails directly through them. These cleats may be from one-half an inch to an inch in depth.

After each row of paving-blocks is set up across the street, this narrow and thin cleat is laid close up against the row of blocks, and in that position is nailed down to the board foundation. Then another row of blocks is set close against said cleat, and another cleat laid down, as aforesaid, and so on. The spacesn between the blocks are then filled with gravel and tar, as in the Nicolson pavement, and the surface treated in the same manner.

It is manifest that my thin cleats, nailed down to the board foundation, will serve to fix and keep in position the paving-blocks just as well as the broad strip used in the Nicolson pavement, and yet will have no liability to rise or work up from the use of the pavement.

It is also manifest that these cleats will tend to prevent any gravel from working under the paving-blocks, and in this respect the pavement so laid is preferable to one laid with the spaces to be filled with gravel extending clear down to the board foundation.

on this plan in New York within the last six months7 and it has been found completely to obviate the defects and difficulties above mentioned.

In the accompanying drawing, u represents the paving-blocks; b, the thin cleats between them; c, the board foundation; d, the sleepers, on which the board foundation rests; and e, the filling in the spaces between the rows of paving-blocks. F represents the beveled blocks forming` the sides of the gutter. F represents the bevel-blocks forming the bottom of the gutter. G represents the curbstone.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In combination with a pavement consisting of rows of wooden blocks set on a board foundation7 with spaces between said rows, to be lled with gravel and tar, or similar substance, thin cleats of Wood between said rows of paving-blocks, and nailed to the board foundation, substantially as and for the purpose described.

C. G. VVATERBURY.

Witnesses:

J. J. GOOMBs, Jos. L. CooMBs. 

